Topic of the Week - Chickens and Fall Leaves

[paintedChix]

as wonderful as dry leaves in the run are…..the opposite is true of Wet leaves. utterly useless!

Cover w/ other, different sized materials & toss scratch, feed or treats in it. The chickens will LOVE the game of "get it" & their scratching will mix dry material w/ wet. Prevents stinky slime & takes away slippery-ness for persons caring for chickens.

Just pine needles by themselvesves are slippery, too. Been there, hit the ground hard. Swear the "hennys" were laughing!

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

its true, a balance of wet matter as well as dry makes a healthy environment, but in the winter, no moisture in the run for us, other than waterers! Winter is a unique beast!

 

[Penpal]

I mow the leaves with grass. But, now I am convinced to rake some of them up and let them finish drying the pole barn. Chickens will have a carpet of leaves over the snow this years.

 

[paintedChix]

I mow the leaves with grass. But, now I am convinced to rake some of them up and let them finish drying the pole barn. Chickens will have a carpet of leaves over the snow this years.

You could spread some straw when mowing & have another component next time...

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Winter ground cover and run enrichment - check! All DRY leaves. wish i did this my first 2 years.

 

[AlphaButterfly]

I use dry leaves in my run year round! They make an excellent (and free) run bedding material. I collect and bag them in the fall after they've dried fully, store them in a protected area and use them throughout the year. My chickens LOVE "dump day" when I dump a bag or two in their run! They spend hours scratching around spreading the leaves, looking for hidden treasures. They shred them completely in a couple of weeks, and mix them around with the poop and other run substrate. The carbon from the leaves combines with the nitrogen from the poop, and water from rain/snow, to form a nice compost that doesn't smell or look poopy. I have wood chips in the run as well, and add all the cut grass in the summer, and together this all makes for a great active compost in the run that looks and smells nice, and is enriching for the chickens who love scratching through it. So I actually don't clean the run - I don't have to. Bonus: this kind of run substrate doesn't get muddy, or freeze solid in the winter. When it snows, I shovel what I can and cover the rest with dry leaves, and the chickens are happy and spend all day outside even in the winter (they hate stepping on snow or ice). Everybody wins!

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What great ideas! I am definitely incorporating some of them into my coop care plan. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

 

[MyFlockIsMyLife]

Oh boy do we love fall time! 5 GLWs blend in perfect with the fallen leaves. I’ll be leaf bagging up at least a dozen this week to prep for a long New England Winter. girls are middle molt now so that will be done before winter sets in.
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I want a hen of this breed sooooo bad. I’m thinking spring will be a great time to add at least two more hens to my flock.

 

[MyFlockIsMyLife]

Winter ground cover and run enrichment - check! All DRY leaves. wish i did this my first 2 years.
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Interesting to me that so many of you have to do this since I usually don’t. Living in AZ, not everything dies here, and there’s enough to keep my flock happy throughout winter naturally.

 

[cincyfarmgirl]

I use dry fall leaves in combination with wood shavings as part of their deep floor bedding in the coop. Fall leaves are a great source of insulation and scratching around in a pile of leaves gives chickens something interesting to do.

 

[RoyalChick]

I dump wet leaves in the covered run. They get spread about and dry under the run roof.
Major fun is had when I dump a sack full.